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The Lumia 1520, already launched in France and Italy, will become available in the UK from 6 December through O2 retail, Vodafone on-line, Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u, according to Nokia. It will also be distributed to independent retailers via reseller Exertis Micro-P.

Carriers have not revealed Lumia 1520 prices yet. However, Nokia said in a statement that on-contract price should start from around £38 per month, which is the price Carphone Warehouse has listed for pre-orders on a two-year contract with Vodafone that offers 2GB data per month.

The 1520 has also now arrived in Russia, Hong Kong, and the US with AT&T, which has launched only a 16GB version rather than the 32GB available in other markets.

Announced last month alongside the lower-specced six-inch phablet, the Lumia 1320, the Lumia 1520 has full 1080p HD, a 1920x1080 resolution at 368ppi, 3400mAh battery, and 2.2Ghz quad-core processor. It also offers 20-megapixel PureView Camera, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage expandable up to 64GB, as well as 7GB cloud storage.

The Lumia 1520 is Nokia's first bid for the market Samsung carved out with its 5.7-inch Galaxy Note series and joins others in the super-large smartphone space like HTC's 5.9-inch One Max and Samsung's 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega.

Nokia's device has similar display and processor specs to the Note 3, but at 200g, weighs about 30g more than Samsung's phablet, which retails in the UK for £594 (€711).

A standout feature according to ZDNet reviews of the Lumia 1520 are Nokia's ClearBlack-based display, which improves the screen's visibility when in direct sunlight. ZDNet reviewer Matthew Miller found the 6-inch display uncomfortable to handle and too big for the average jeans pocket — a point also noted by Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, who considered the size more suitable for a purse than a pocket.

But the Lumia 1520 and 1320 may help Nokia's appeal in markets like China, where the Lumia 1520 retails for 4,999 yuan. As IDC noted in September, Asia Pacific shipments of phablets with displays between 5 and 7 inches have grown from under one million in 2011 to 25.2 million the second quarter of 2013, now overshadowing tablets and portable PCs, which have shipped in volumes of less than 16 million a quarter since the beginning of the year.